Unox – Good Noodles

Unox Good Noodles is a Dutch instant noodles brand. While it led the market for years, new and innovative products have entered the market, eating away at Unox’s market share. But even with these newcomers on the shelves, there was little fun and excitement in this category. How could we bring the fun and excitement back into the category and be the #1 choice for young millennials looking for an energy fix?

Studies showed that this group experienced significant stress. The pressure to perform was tiring them, and so grew the importance of doing things that make them feel good. This is what we, as a brand, want to inspire. Fuel the activities that make them happy, however dubious they might seem to others. We would celebrate their dubious achievements.

Instead of just telling the Netherlands that Good Noodles really keeps you going, we invited Dutch Gen Zers and young Millennials to prove it. We introduced ‘Good Noodles Keeps you going’ live.

We challenged people to pose in our billboards while holding a cup of Good Noodles. Like a classic billboard model, except this time they weren’t photographed, but live-streamed. Whoever held out the longest won Good Noodles for life. We built an installation that live-streamed the challenge to digital out-of-home screens across the Netherlands.

To kick it off, we invited popular Dutch YouTube stars De Gierige Gasten, Sophie Milzink and Gio. They battled it out to set the high score and challenged their audience to beat it. The rest of the Netherlands soon followed.

This activation worked well because it tapped into youth culture in three relevant ways. We started with a good insight into their current, stressed out, state of mind, showing our target audience that we ‘got’ them. Then we gave them something they really like: a challenge. But one that put things into perspective to add humor and make it fun. And finally we used peers that they are influenced by, to make a fast and easy connection.

After the campaign our brand awareness rose by 40%. In total, the campaign generated more than 30 million impressions and proved that Good Noodles is your partner in crime if you need a quick boost to keep you going. A combined total of more than 35,000 likes on all the influencer content showed that we struck a chord with young millennials. We showed that having fun, no matter how dubious, is the best remedy against stress.

The activation, conceived by DDB & Tribal Amsterdam and executed in collaboration with JCDecaux, Mindshare and Kinetic, has been supported by product-oriented online and outdoor advertising with a packshot, and short online videos.